Biff Banner (Bill Pullman) was a captain of a submarine who couldn't stand the confined space. He has been in therapy ever since he went nuts and ran his sub onto a California beach. But, there are those who have plans for him. A nefarious Presidential adviser (Robert Vaughn) wants to start a war with Russia and the Navy Admiral Malice (Ned Beatty) is his go-to guy. The Secretary of Defense (Roddy McDowall) is a clueless tool who can be hoodwinked. A Sub Standard Sub is created which will be destroyed just as it makes an attempt to attack a Russian sub. Naturally, these two want Biff to be the captain since they believe he is dispensable. Therefore, they take him out of a therapy session and march him onto the Sub Standard. Joining him there is a pretty lieutenant Jan (Wendy Schaal), who hates Biff's guts, a kid sub expert, various inept crewmen and the Mole (Ernie Sabella), who is there to make sure everything goes wrong. Oh, was it mentioned that this is also a stealth sub which can transform itself into the persona of a whale on command? Off it goes, not knowing its true mission. Sure enough, the Russians get wind that it is coming and are prepared to defend their territory with their own master sub, the Pink Torpedo. Between Japanese fishermen who want to capture the sub when it switches to "whale mode", icebergs in the water, and Biff, who locks himself into the imaging room when the going gets rough, what will be the finale of this expedition? This is a very silly, rather lame spoof movie. It tries to be Airplane under water and it is not even close. Yet, its not unwatchable and there are some inspired scenes. In addition, the cast is terrific. Beatty is always a pleasure, while Vaughn, Pullman, Schaal, McDowall, Sabella, Joe Namath, and Michael Winslow go for broke and keep the flick churning along. All the other actors, whose names are not familiar, are fun as well. The sets and costumes are nice while the mixed-bag script and fairly weak direction are deterrents. In short, if you like spoofs and don't care if they are inanely silly, this movie will probably entertain you some Saturday night in the future.
